Three Ways
by ErikaRiley
Summary: Three ways out of every box, but 4 chapters. Intended to be songfic, but didn't really work out that way, because I suck at songfic. Also, the plot involves a couch and a coffee table. Scintillating details, right! You know you want to find out more.
1. Chapter 1

_there's three ways out of every box _

_fall out the bottom or you crawl out the top _

_there's three ways out of every, every box _

_and if you can't find your way out _

_then you just burn it to the ground _

_then you disappear, like smoke, into the clouds _

They were stuck in a holding pattern, Auggie thought, not for the first time, as Annie had dropped him off at his apartment after an evening at the bar. They had been for awhile...they were friends, absolutely, and god willing, always would be.

But lately Auggie had felt penned in by the boundaries of the friend zone. He resented the fact that he'd actually felt awkward waiting for her at the hospital. He was her best friend, he shouldn't have to feel awkward about it. But he had, because he'd been more worried than he knew he had any right to be.

That wasn't the only ominous cloud on the horizon. Even after learning that Annie had broken up with Doctor Scott, it still bothered him to have to think about the man now and again. Yes, he was surprised to find himself a little jealous, but it was very manageable. More to the point, he was incredibly bothered he hadn't found out from Annie herself.

That little omission of hers had flipped a switch somewhere in the back of Auggie's mind. A restless, antsy, intensely curious switch. He knew it was crazy, but there was a small part of him that wanted to corner her and ask what else she wasn't telling him, and why.

And that wasn't best friend behavior either. Best friends accept you for who you are without explanation, they definitely don't back you against walls and demand a justification. But he supposed Annie wasn't the only one keeping secrets. Auggie could barely admit to himself what his feelings meant, he certainly wasn't going to tell her about them.

So they were stuck.

* * *

><p>The next time she asked if he wanted a ride to Allen's, he paused. And said no.<p>

"Oh," she said, then paused for an extra fraction of a second, and he knew that either a question or a deflection was coming next, but not which. It was in precisely this kind of tiny lapse that Auggie most wished to see her face, her expression, to know whether her eyes were looking at him or the floor.

"I think I'll do my drinking at home tonight," he preempted her drolly. "It's cheaper."

"Yeah, definitely," Annie replied. He heard her push off fom leaning against the desk, but she didn't move her feet, and he suppressed a smile. "You coming?" He asked, nonchalant.

She paused another fraction of a second, and this time he strained mentally without moving, praying for some sort of signal that could be heard...

She hummed. So briefly that anyone else might have written it off as simply exhaling, but it was definitely a hum, a pleased sound. "Sure," she said, just as nonchalantly, but his pulse quickened anyway, and he smiled as she hip-checked him and then left without another word, her shoes tapping softly against his office floor.


	2. Chapter 2

_there's three ways off a merry-go-round _

_you either jump or you let it slow down _

_there's three ways off a merry-go-round, merry-go-round _

_And if you can't put your foot down _

_Then you just burn it to the ground _

_And you walk away, real slow, back into the crowd _

Over the next several weeks, Auggie had easy success in his efforts to steer her more and more towards another, and then another, night in at his place. Of course, they'd hung out at his place before, but now, especially since she was avoiding going back to the guesthouse, it was a regular thing, their default setting, and he was actually feeling a little stuck again.

Of course, listening to Annie watch movies and tv was definitely more enjoyable than listening to men at the bar watch Annie, Auggie reflected now. But sitting on a couch with her as they watched the Daily Show together came with its own set of problems. He took another sip from the beer that he was nursing, wondering if this was the first or second.

After the three shots of Patron earlier, it was getting a little hard to keep count. And shouldn't that bottle be gone yet, Auggie wondered, after the amount of drinking they'd done lately to avoid talking about Danielle? Was Annie also not telling him that she kept buying another bottle? He wished he could just see the level of liquid, and wondered if it would be crazy to lean over and just lift the bottle, shake it very slightly. Probably.

What had he been thinking about? Right, problems. He had problems. Problems like ignoring how badly he wanted to touch her. After a couple agonizing minutes spent debating whether or not it it would be too much, he'd finally decided that he could stretch his arm out along the back behind her shoulders. He wouldn't even really touch her, just use up some space that would have gone unused. That wasn't overstepping best friend bounds, really.

He was listening closely to the show, but not to pay attention to the words. He was waiting for the right moment, not a romantic moment of course, but just something less caustic than Jon's famous rants. And when it came, he kept it low-key, and casually drew up his arm after laughing with the audience at whatever punchline Jon had just delivered.

Next to him on the couch, Annie shifted her weight from side to side briefly, and Auggie wondered what she'd just done, but kept his face carefully blank, continuing to stare in the same direction. Had she looked at him just now? It felt like it, and he couldn't help but resent that he couldn't see what had been in her eyes as she'd glanced over. He had no idea how she might react to the feelings he'd been having.

It wasn't that he hadn't tried to feel her out, because he had. Over and over, he'd tried, deftly guiding conversation closer to such topics and listening for any change in her voice, or trying to catch hints from her body movements when he "accidentally" stood too close, but he always stopped well short of risking alerting her to how he felt about her. And well short of getting any definitive information.

Because it was Annie. If she knew, and didn't feel the same way, he would lose her, he knew it. She was too kind to allow a heartsick idiot to follow her around, and too smart for him to be very confident that he'd be able to convince her that he wasn't a heartsick idiot.

But he was, literally sick from it. He felt mildly nauseated sometimes, dizzy from the dance of wanting to tell her and not telling her. Step up to the edge, step back. Watch more time spin by, as he gathered the nerve to step up to the edge again.

And she didn't make it any easier, he thought with an inward groan as he felt her lean sideways over his lap. A second later, he heard the channel change and surmised she'd grabbed the remote. "Hey," he protested automatically.

"Oh whatever," Annie said dismissively. "It's not like you were paying attention to it anyway, you were looking in a totally different direction."

"I'm bl-" he started, chagrined, and then let out a laugh as his brain caught up to the low humor in her voice. "That's not fair," he said instead, but couldn't keep the smile off of his face. "I'm the only one allowed to make fun of my disability."

"Oh, that's how that works," Annie said with playful sarcasm, _"I see," _she finished, with emphasis. Auggie guffawed at her boldness, imagining her leaning forward a bit, looking at him incredulously with bright eyes, and he had to reign in the desire to reach out and grab her.

"But I wasn't just making fun of you," she insisted, sarcasm gone, but still a teasing note in her voice, "I know you, your eyes usually look towards the screen most of the time when you're paying attention to it, and you hadn't even glanced in that general direction for minutes."

He let out a smaller smile than he wanted to at the idea she'd been paying him so much attention. "What, you were just staring at me the whole time?"

She was silent for only a moment, a moment when he cursed his inability to see any flash of guilt or truth in her eyes, and then she sighed, clearly exasperated, and jabbed her fist at his ribs. The small gesture, which he felt in vibrations from the couch as soon as she started to move, punctured any resolve he'd had not to touch her. Her hand was just a little too slow, and before she could pull it back, he'd seized her wrist and twisted her arm painlessly but securely under her back.

Letting his upper body weight heavily fall onto her, crowding her back to the couch cushions, he grinned from his sideways position in what he was pretty sure was the direction of her face. "First you stare at me like a creeper, then you make fun of my disability, and now, Walker," he said, his voice low and teasing, "you attack me in my own home. I'm not sure if I can trust you anymore," he finished with mock concern, but at the end of the sentence his voice feel a little flat as he realized that last sentence was closer to the truth than he'd like it to be. He didn't think she had time to be dating another Dr. Scott, but what did he know, he hadn't known about the first one.

Annie had been squirming delightfully beneath him, but as he forced himself to stop thinking, and tried to school his expression into friendly and teasing disapproval, she stopped moving. "Auggie?" she asked uncertainly. Crap. She'd seen something on his face.

"Sorry," he said, and released her arm, chastising himself for ruining the playful moment. He tried to sit up, but his other arm was still trapped underneath Annie and himself. Instead of lifting her back to make it easier for him to escape, she rocked back further onto her awkward perch on his elbow, effectively pinning him on top of her.

"No, tell me, something's going on," she said. "What were you thinking about when you weren't watching the news? You have the same look on your face now that you did a few minutes ago."

He closed his eyes. Not that it made any difference for him, but he knew she would see it, and he needed a few seconds. She probably thought he was thinking, maybe composing himself, but really he just needed to listen to her breathing, in and out. Her breath came just a little bit heavier - was that from trying to get unpinned? She was in better shape than that.

"Do you really wanna know?" Auggie asked seriously. He opened his eyes again, gazing intently at her, now sure of her position beneath him.

He heard her breath catch, then she said, "yeah." Casually, like of course, why not. But Auggie knew her, and he hoped like hell that he was right about there being something more behind that one syllable.

He was silent for another beat, and then he said, "okay", just as casually. He moved his head, tentatively at first, not consciously thinking about exactly what direction, forward and down by intuition, knowing he would eventually end up at her just by following gravity.

When their lips met, the bottom dropped out from under him, and in free fall, he got a lot less tentative.


	3. Chapter 3

_there's always somebody there for a laugh _

_then you're the only one that's left _

_now that's what you get, left behind in a wreck _

He was kissing her. Oh, God, Auggie was kissing her.

Annie knew she should feel upset about this, because she wasn't one of those girls that fell all over him, that succumbed to his carefully practiced seductions. No, she was his best friend, damn it, she was immune to that kind of thing.

Except she wasn't, apparently. Because she hadn't pushed him away yet. He dragged his wet lips against her startled, half-open mouth, and a pleasing jolt traveled from her mouth all the way down her spine.

She'd seen this coming, sort of. Definitely after he'd said "okay", but maybe before that, too, if she was honest with herself. She'd known _something _was coming as soon as she'd glanced over a few minutes ago and seen his face staring fixedly and blankly at the far corner of the room. She'd thought he was upset about something at work, or just tired of the show.

He definitely wasn't supposed to start kissing her. But he was, and she couldn't help but feel that these kisses didn't seem planned or practiced. His tongue was tracing her lips, and somehow it felt simultaneously urgent and unhurried. Before she could think about it she was letting hers slide forward as well. After the initial shock wore off, she couldn't help but tilt her head to meet him in an ardent and awkward rhythm, and even found herself biting down on his lower lip as he let it linger too close to her teeth.

She heard herself moan softly as he pulled away, and took what seemed like years to shift his weight. Not being able to stop herself, she arched her back a little against him when he bent down again and his tongue invaded her mouth anew. Oh, god, this was already out of control. She thought fleetingly of Ben, how disgusted she'd been with herself to realize, months later, how horribly weak she'd been with him. She knew she couldn't go back to feeling that helpless, but here she was, underneath Auggie, feeling like she was drowning and the only thing she could think of to do was breath in more water.

After a number more (two? ten? she didn't know) of slow, sizzling kisses, he pulled away again, and Annie's world spun. He was leaving, she thought wildly, things would never be the same again. He'd realized that this had been a mistake, and the last real thing she heard from him would be some incomplete explanation for why he had to go.

"Annie," he said, softly and seriously, and she felt slapped despite expecting it.

"Annie, my arm kinda hurts," Auggie whispered. "I'm sorry, can you...?" Annie stared at him for a second in incomprehension, and then said, intelligently, "What?"

He paused, and smiled at her, and then, bracing his free arm against the corner of the couch, lifted and twisted them both, his hand never leaving her spine. When they had resettled, Annie realized that she was laying nearly flat on top of him, her thighs straddling his abdomen. She glanced up to find that Auggie had one arm tossed casually behind his head as a makeshift pillow, clearly with no plans to go anywhere soon, and his eyes gazing down at her unnervingly.

She knew he couldn't actually see her, and furthermore, that he had no idea of the brief trip to abandonment issues crazyland that had just happened in her head, but the embarrassment still stung just enough that her cheeks flooded with color, and she tried to pull away. He made a quiet noise of dissent, and tightened his arm around her back.

"Going somewhere?" he asked mildly. His hips were bony, pressing into the flesh of her inner thighs, and his chest was solid and warm beneath her forearms as she propped herself up to squint at him in the dim, flickering light of the television. She was suddenly intimately aware of just how many places at which their bodies were touching, and was scared at how she was almost to the point of not caring if he would disappear tomorrow.

She pushed off of his chest one more time, but instead of her upper body getting further away from him, her hips just slipped further down on his, and she blushed even more, thanking any god out there that at least he would never know how pink she was.

"I - no, I guess not," Annie said, feeling disoriented at his casual possessiveness. "Auggie, what...what just happened?"

"Well," Auggie said, mockingly ponderous, "you asked me what I was thinking, and I asked if you really wanted to know, and you said yes, so, I showed you. I could show you again if you like." He smirked up at her.

She longed to say yes. To laugh, and say, yes, please, show me again. Take me back under. But reality was continuing to come flooding back despite the distraction of straddling him, and Annie was starting to think that visit to her abandonment issues crazyland hadn't been so crazy after all. None of his relationships lasted any length of time, and hers...well, the few she'd had were even less long-lived. Eventually this would fall apart, and then what? She wouldn't have her best friend.

"I - I don't think that's a good idea," she said shakily, her mind already showing her exactly how lonely and hard work would be when things got awkward between them. It was taking more and more effort to regulate her breathing, and terrified that he would hear her, Annie pushed away from him once more, this time with surprising force. He let his arm slip away from her, looking bewildered, and Annie stumbled to her feet next to the couch.


	4. Chapter 4

_there's three ways off a burning bridge _

_you pray for rain, or you learn how to swim _

_there's thee ways off every burning bridge _

_but it you can't find strength then you quit _

_And you can just burn up and sink _

_and you'll drift away, real slow _

_down into the ground_

Auggie had, in many ways, grown used to being blind. But he'd never felt so terrifyingly paralyzed as he did right now. He'd tried to grab her as she rolled off of him, but he didn't move fast enough.

Something was going horribly wrong. Had he misread her? For a blissful few minutes, she'd seemed to return his needy passion, giving as good as she got. But now she was quickly moving away from him, and why had her breath turned ragged before she'd stood up? Panic set in as he heard the rustle of her picking up something made of fabric, from the direction of the chair where she'd left her coat a few hours before.

"No," he said. He stood up too, taking a step toward her, feeling his heart beating erratically. "Annie, wait, stay." _Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,_ he thought. _What have I just done?_

"Auggie, I can't, we can't," she said. Her voice was thick, like she had teared up, and muffled, like she was facing away from him. He heard her soft footfalls moving further away from him, and without thinking, he tried to follow as quickly as possible.

_Crash._ Flailing wildly, Auggie barely managed to regain his balance as he fought not to fall into the coffee table, which he'd somehow forgotten about long enough to slam not one, but both of shins into. A stack of books and a couple of dishes, lined up neatly on the far edge, had fallen off, and his legs were still smarting, but not as much as his pride, and not only because he'd just run into a piece of furniture in his own damn apartment.

_God, I'm a loser, _he thought, the pain radiating through both his bones and heart making his face tighten into a mask of agony.

Suddenly, he felt a cool touch on his elbow, guiding him back down to sit on the couch. "I'm sorry," Annie whispered, sounding contrite, commiserating but never pitying, as only she could. "That looked like it hurt, it's probably going to bruise, you should sit down, I'll go get some ice."

But Auggie seized his opportunity, and her upper arm, pulled her down too. "It did hurt," he said, trying to look directly at her, wanting her to see the emotion in his eyes. "Annie, why are you running out on me?"

He heard her mouth open, and she made a subdued noise low in her chest, like she was about to start a sentence, but no words came out of her mouth. Auggie realized that this was exactly what had jumpstarted all of this, the very thing that had triggerered all of his irrational behavior from the beginning - she wasn't talking to him, wouldn't tell him what was going on, how she was feeling.

Well, she might not be talking, but he certainly could. Before he'd kissed her, he'd dreaded vocalizing his feelings for her, terrified of how she'd react. But now he had nothing left to lose, and the words started pouring out of him.

"I'm sorry," he said first, trying to think of everything she would need to hear to fix this, to make it go away. "If that was - not what you wanted, I'm sorry. I thought - Annie, it's just that we have - this connection, this amazing friendship, and I thought - there could be more..." he trailed off, at a loss for words for a moment.

"Auggie," Annie started, her voice low and strained. He shook his head, cutting her off.

"No, I know, it's okay, you don't have to explain," Auggie said, trying to sound calm, balanced. "I get it. You just see me as, like, your gay best friend. Right? It's true, we minorities are so interchangable," there was something resembling a snort, that was a good sign, and he smiled, "and you just don't think of me that way."

"I'm just that guy you've worked with for a couple years who keeps saving your ass," he continued, giving a small but cocky smirk, knowing she'd get at least halfway to rolling her eyes at that. "And I get it, if that's all you want me to be."

For a minute, Auggie's words hung heavily in the air between them, and he felt like they pressed up against his head, smothering his ears so that he had to strain just to hear any other sound. Her breathing had slowed down, but still sounded shallow, not relaxed.

"Auggie," she said finally said, her voice wavering. "It's just...I really need you to be that guy, the guy who always save my ass. Auggie," she whispered his name again, and his heart broke into even smaller pieces at how tense and worried she sounded. "In the last few years, my life has been turned upside down. My days are crazy, my family hates me, and I couldn't tell my friends about it even if I had friends, which I don't, because you're it right now," she said. "I can't, we can't, do more, because I need you, to be my best friend, to always be there for me," and her voice broke just as full understanding finally broke over him.

"Annie," he said, finally letting go of her arm. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, gently but firmly. "We can live happily ever after, you can dump me two months or two years from now, or you can reject me right now, if that's what you want." He paused, hoping like hell that wasn't what she wanted.

"Either way, I wouldn't be going anywhere, I'm going to be right here. I know that...with Ben, and now your sister, it must seem like everyone in your life goes away, but _I_ will stay." He knew he was probably staring just past her face, so he lifted his hand again, found her shoulder, and lightly ran his fingers upwards until he could cup her jaw in his palm, direct his eyes at her more squarely as he said simply, "I will always be right here for you."

"Auggie," she whispered, and though his ears were primed to pick up any inflection, any indication of whether she would stay or run again, he couldn't quite pinpoint what emotion her voice was so strained with. He felt her cool fingertips on his wrist, and then her small hand covered his larger one, dragging it down and away from her face. And a few seconds went by, and she certainly wasn't promising the same back to him.

A wave of disappointment hit him, and he almost let himself sink under it, already feeling an ache in his lungs. But then he felt her hand moving over his chest, and movement rippled through the couch cushions, and she was sliding a leg over his lap to straddle him, and he took in a ragged, relieved breath.

"Annie," he said, looking upward, praying she would hear the need in his low voice, see the plea in his eyes. Because for the life of him he couldn't think of any more words to say, just her name, but he needed some kind of reassurance, some vocal expression of whatever was on her face that he couldn't see...

Maybe she couldn't think of any words either, because instead of telling him anything he needed to hear, she simply bent forward and let her lips melt into his. Auggie's breath caught, and then her tongue pushed tentatively against his, as her hands gripped his shoulders more tightly, and he found he suddenly didn't need to hear anything after all. He could be blind _and _deaf, and he would still have understood that he didn't need to be worried about how Annie was feeling about him.

* * *

><p><em>****AN: This story is complete for now, sorry the ending is kinda lame and cheesy. I may or may not write a smut sequel for it later. If you liked it or have any constructive criticism, please let me know by reviewing, it would mean a lot. :) ****<em>


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